When Jed Lowrie reported to camp a few weeks ago, he was wearing a large knee brace. That was an indication that the New York Mets‘ infielder was not fully recovered from one of the issues that plagued him last season, when he could only accumulate eight plate appearances.
We are now into March, and not only he is still wearing the brace, but there is no indication that he will return to the Mets’ lineup soon.
In fact, when asked by reporters on Wednesday about a possible return date, he passed the ball to the upper part of the organization.
“I have to refer you to the organization,” Lowrie said when asked about his potential presence in the lineup and on the field. He has been participating in drills and taking batting practice at the Mets’ spring training complex.
He doesn’t know – or won’t say – if he will play in spring training games at all. General manager Brodie van Wagenen last spoke about Lowrie on February 18. He said that the New York Mets were encouraged by Lowrie’s participation in baseball activities.
Mets’ GM explains the brace and his utility
At the time, Van Wagenen said that “the left knee injury that he had coming into spring training last year has just continued to give him problems. A lot of the issues that he had last year were muscles on the left side of his body, on the lower half that were attributed to the knee.
“What he’s doing is he had some instability and he had some laxity in the knee that we’ve tried to stabilize with the brace. The brace has allowed him to do his rehab, it’s allowed him to do strength work, it’s allowed him to do baseball activities. Now we’re gonna try to see how that brace can correlate into competition.”
The GM also said back then that it was too early to tell when Lowrie would be able to return, or if he could play with the brace.
The New York Mets’ infielder still has about three weeks until opening day. He could theoretically return to the field before then, but it’s not looking like a particularly good bet.